[Leoskee]

I pulled up the 27 year old carpet in my new house. To my unpleasant surprise ( I had my fingers crossed the whole time) there are stains all over the place. Im pretty sure they are urine stains because the previous owner had dogs and cats. Is there anything that I can do before I refinish the floors? Some areas are very dark and the wood shrunk/warped a little. Will I be able to sand these areas out? The floors have never been refinished.

Also, in one of the rooms I found a lot of small stains that sort of reminded me of mold stains. They are brown and circular and spread all over the floor. The surface of the wood does not look like it had any moisture on it. Any ideas?

 

[WhatRnsdownhill]

try
Oxalic Acid....

 

[Leoskee]

What is the best way to check the floor to see if the stains penetrated the wood? I plan on refinishing the floor but I would like to know if I have to replace the pieces instead of finding out while the floors are being refinished.

 

[oh'mike]

Use a sander with 80 grit paper---sand the bad spots--if the sanding (and perhaps oxolic acid) do not restore the wood--plan on replacing the damaged boards.

Floor finishers are usually very good at replacing sections---if you will be doing the work,let us know---someone will walk you through the process.

 

[Canarywood1]

If you do use Oxalic acid, do it in an out of the way place if possible.

 

[CarpetPros]

Always a great surprise to see those hardwoods up underneath the carpets! But, yes it can be quite frustrating to see those old stains right in a spot where it is easily noticed. best bet in those cases is to sand down, and re finish with a darker color stain to mask the stain.

 

[DanielThomas]

Have you ever tried using finished plywood as a flooring?

 

[Daniel Holzman]

Hardwood veneer plywood typically has a veneer of about 1/64 inch, which is much too thin to work as a floor material.

As for removing stains, as noted by others, if they are deep, can be impossible to remove without sanding too much wood away. Oxalic acid bleaches the wood, but may leave the wood looking different than the remainder of the floor. A good floor mechanic will have ideas on how to make the floor look the best possible.

 

[jlhaslip]

Give it a quick sanding, refinish and call them Character Spots.

 

[EmilioRamirez]

You should read this article on Environmental Problems With Conventional Flooring

 

[stick\shift]

What does that article have to do with removing stains from hardwood?

 

[jimn]

While I am a big fan of DIY at times it way help to consult with a pro. While the process of finishing a floor is not complex, the technique requires skill. Particularly with floors with lots of problems Floor sanders are kind of a beast of machine and things can quickly go bad. If you think you are up to it by all means find out as much as you can and go ahead.